American Christian congregations have renewed urgent calls for a ceasefire because the death toll in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing siege climbs to greater than 20,000 inside the days before Christmas.
Statements from Christian leaders pleading for an end to the violence followed Israel’s attacks at a Catholic church and convent in Gaza, where a majority of the small community of Palestinian Christian families have taken refuge through the war.
On 16 December, a sniper from the Israel Defense Forces shot two women “all at once” and “in cold blood” at Holy Family Church, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, an ecclesiastical office for the Latin Catholics within the region.
In his appeal for a swift end to the conflict, Pope Francis condemned the killings as terrorism.
“Some are saying, ‘This is terrorism and war.’ Yes, it’s war. It is terrorism,” he said in remarks at St Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Rev Timothy P Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services and president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote that “such violence must not proceed”, demanding “the immediate cessation of all hostilities, the discharge of hostages, and for earnest negotiations towards a peaceful resolution of this conflict.”
“We resolutely join our voices with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, reminding all parties on this conflict, that war isn’t the reply but all the time a defeat,” he added. “We plead, ‘peace, please peace!’”
Their statements follow appeals from a growing variety of American churches and Christian groups. The National Council of Churches – the nation’s largest ecumenical body, encompassing 38 Christian faith groups – joined a letter with 60 other advocacy groups urging President Joe Biden to publicly support a ceasefire, prioritise the protection of all civilians, including the secure admission of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the discharge of all hostages.
A letter to the president from Churches from Middle East Peace – a coalition of greater than 30 national Church communions and organisations – demands his support for “immediate ceasefire, de-escalation, and restraint by all involved”.
The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop Michael Curry wrote that “the violence is horrific, and the geopolitics are complex, but my call to like is straightforward: Stop the killing. Stop all of it. Stop it today.” His letter, written on 7 November as greater than 10,000 Palestinians were reported dead, urged world leaders to “stop the subsequent 10,000 from being killed”. Less than two months later, the death toll eclipsed 20,000.
Last month, with the support of greater than 900 Black Christian leaders, clergy purchased a full-page ad in The New York Times to “call for an instantaneous bilateral ceasefire within the Middle East for the sake of our shared humanity and our collective security”.
A bunch of Black Christian faith leaders have also recently met with White House officials and members of the Congressional Black Caucus to deal with Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis.
Pax Christi USA, a national Catholic peace organisation, is holding “call-in” days asking members to call the president to “support an instantaneous ceasefire in Gaza to finish the mass slaughter”. A “Ceasefire Carols” campaign is staging Christmas carolling across the US to sing songs of peace. Faith leaders and church groups are holding Christian prayer vigils.
They are amongst the numerous voices joining a chorus of interfaith groups holding demonstrations across the US urging the Biden administration to hitch global leaders in pressing Israel to support a ceasefire in a conflict that has now killed roughly one in every 100 people in Gaza, including 1000’s of girls and youngsters.
That scale of destruction in a narrow strip that’s home to 2.2 million Palestinians is compounded by warnings of hunger and famine, depleting supplies of unpolluted water and fear of disease, and the mass displacement of 85 per cent of Gaza’s population.
An estimated 1,000 Christians lived in Gaza before the war began on October 7, as Israel launched retaliatory bombardments and a ground offensive after Hamas attacks that left 1,200 people dead and took roughly 240 hostages.
A overwhelming majority of that Christian population is Greek Orthodox, while others are Roman Catholic, Baptist and other Protestant denominations. They are amongst among the oldest Christian communities on this planet.
On 21 October, Gaza’s oldest Greek Orthodox was struck by explosions that killed a minimum of 18 people, based on the Order of St George, an associated order of the church. The dead included members of the family of former US Rep Justin Amash, the primary Palestinian-American member of Congress.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, among the many oldest jurisdictions in Christendom, condemned the attack.
“The Patriarchate stresses that it is going to not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty, rooted in its Christian values, to supply all that’s essential in times of war and peace alike,” the organisation wrote.
American Christian groups, reeling from 11 weeks of attacks, are renewing their appeals to finish the violence as Palestinian Christian leaders fear the violent erasure of their centuries-old communities.
“I feel the Christian community is not going to survive this atrocity,” Rev Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Lutheran leader within the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, where Christians imagine Jesus was born, told NBC News. “Even those that will survive, who might survive, I’m undecided that they will live in Gaza in a spot where life is unlivable.”
Last month, Palestinian leaders of Christian denominations in Bethlehem – citing the devastation in Gaza – unanimously decided against public Christmas celebrations.
More than 300 people were trapped on the Holy Family Church where an Israeli sniper fatally shot two women. Seven others were shot and wounded on the compound, based on a press release from the Patriarchate.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed reports of the attack are “not true.”
UK lawmaker Layla Moran, whose family sought refuge contained in the church, told members of Parliament that a tank was positioned outside the complex, soldiers fired into the church, and a convent was bombed.
“The situation has been desperate for weeks, but now it’s descending,” she said. “The people within the church … are civilians. They don’t have anything to do with Hamas. They are nuns, orphans, disabled people. They are a small Christian community they usually know everyone.”
The suffering “will not be confined to this church,” she said.
